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Breakfast

I eat oatmeal for breakfast most days, no matter the weather. Sometimes Dylan does, too. Sometimes she doesn't. (This day she had yogurt, blueberries, and toast with homemade marionberry jam) This oatmeal is topped with gingered rhubarb compote. Rhubarb season is blessedly long here. It is totally reasonable to start using rhubarb with the last apples at winter's end and still be using it when raspberries come on (which is happening now, but more on that later...)

The compote is about all I've managed to do with the rhubarb this year, though I did make the Buttermilk Lemon Rhubarb Bundt cake from this book back in April. I also made the Rhubarb Crumble from the same book, but next time I'll just wing it rather than follow their recipe. The bundt cake is one of my very faves, and I find gluten-free cake + bundt pan = happy fun times. Anyway, the compote is my own recipe, and I'll happily share with you. In addition to be tasty on oatmeal, I highly recommend it over vanilla ice cream. I will also mention quickly that if you put milk in your oatmeal, stir it in before you add the rhubarb, or the milk will curdle & you will be sad.

Rhubarb Compote

4-5 stalks of rhubarb, washed & chopped into 1-inch pieces1 small palm full of candied/crystallized ginger, chopped pretty fine1 scoop of sugar to taste, somewhere in the vicinity of 1 cupOrange juice

Put the first three ingredients in a saucepan with enough oj to cover the bottom by about 1/4-1/2". Bring to a boil, then reduce heat & simmer 'til everything is soft, stirring periodically.

The other bit of brightness in my morning meal is my companion. These pictures are from the first of June. Looking at them I realize how much she's grown in a very short time.

Her antics make breakfast far more fun than it has ever been before! We take our time, look out the window at the world walking by, and enjoy each other's company. Is there a better way to start the day?